Research

Overview and Projects

The Lai Lab works on numerous projects concurrently. Many of these projects intersect with the fields of biostatistics, clinical psychology, and public health. Topics of study include child trauma, traumatic stressors, and disaster exposure. Please see below for an overview of our current and existing projects.

Evaluating the Health Impacts of Disasters on Youth 

Funded by the Grodman Family Foundation 

Principal Investigator: Betty S. Lai, Ph.D.

As climate change exacerbates the intensity and frequency of disasters, the need for post-disaster services will outstrip resources. Disaster management experts advocate implementing stepped care models of intervention after disasters, with the goal of stratifying youth to ensure those with highest needs receive the most intense interventions. A critical barrier to implementing stepped care models is the dearth of information on the effects of disasters on a range of health behaviors among youth aged 15 - 24. Research with youth after disasters has focused almost exclusively on mental health outcomes. We propose novel methodological and statistical approaches to overcome limitations in the existing literature and rigorously evaluate the health effects of disasters on youth. Using two large population-based surveys (the Youth Behavior Risk Survey and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System), we will conduct difference-in-differences models to evaluate the effects of Hurricane Sandy (October 2012) on youth mental health and health behaviors. We will examine the differential impact of exposure to Hurricane Sandy on youth with a social justice focus. Disparities in adolescent mental health and health behaviors are often evident, increasing with age, but also vary across sex and race/ethnicity (Kann et al., 2018). Disasters exacerbate social disparities. This analysis will help identify youth who may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of disasters in order to target interventions.

Evaluating Science-Based Video Communication. 

Funded by the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society and the Research Across Departments Grant at Boston College.

Principal Investigator: Betty S. Lai, Ph.D.

A critical barrier to training scientists in research communication is the lack of evidence-based practices for how scientists should engage the public. Taking this paucity of knowledge as impetus for research, this proposal seeks to develop systematic guidance for scientists on how to engage the public through video-based platforms. We focus on videos because videos have become the dominant media for communicating on social networks. To illustrate, internal documents from the technology company Meta expressed alarm at the rapid migration of young users from their photo-based platform to video-based platforms (Frenkel et al., 2021). For example, the video-based platform TikTok has over 1 billion active users (Frenkel et al., 2021). Contemporary youth are using new platforms to navigate their social lives and also education content. This proposal directly addresses the Research Across Departments and Schools Grant mission by fostering a new interdisciplinary research collaboration that cannot be solved through one disciplinary lens. This project will develop evidence-based practice guidelines for video-based science communication through these aims:

Aim 1: Conducting a systematic review of the science communication literature.

Aim 2: Evaluating science-based video content of top creators on video-based social networking platforms.

Aim 3: Experimentally manipulating and testing science communication strategies identified in aims 1 and 2 to evaluate their effectiveness.

Colleges and the COVID-19 Crisis

Principal Investigator: Betty S. Lai, Ph.D.

We conducted a research study that examined the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on undergraduate college students and their academic communities. Our goal was to find ways in which colleges and universities in the United States can best support college students during and after disasters such as the COVID-19 outbreak.

Project Disaster-SMART (Statistical Models of Academic Recovery Trajectories) Schools 

National Science Foundation

Principal Investigator: Betty S. Lai, Ph.D.

Award Number: 1634234

Little is known about the trajectories of academic recovery of schools following natural disasters. This information can help inform postdisaster recovery efforts. To answer these questions, data from public schools in the path of Hurricane Ike (2008) was examined. Data included school demographic information and standardized testing results (used to quantify academic performance) from the predisaster (2003 – 2008) and postdiaster (2009 – 2011) periods.

Growth Mindset

A growth mindset perspective emphasizes that ability may be developed through effort, whereas a fixed mindset perspective treats ability as fixed and immutable. Growth mindset perspectives are associated with increased motivation and self-efficacy among students faced with challenging material.  Since graduate biostatistics courses are often demanding, enhancing growth mindsets among students in these courses may be a promising intervention for increasing motivation, self-efficacy, and achievement. This is particularly important in public health, as biostatistics is a foundational discipline critical for analyzing and interpreting data to address public issues. The purpose of this study is to present the initial development of a growth mindset intervention for use within the University System of Georgia. Specifically, this intervention focuses on 1) psychoeducation about learning and 2) “open” tasks illustrating multiple methods for addressing problems. 

Child Trajectories of Post-traumatic Stress After Natural Disasters

National Institute of Mental Health

Principal Investigator: Betty S. Lai, Ph.D.

Project Number: 1R03MH113849-01

There is little information known about how and why children differ in their post traumatic stress symptom (PTSS) patterns after disasters. It is essential to identify what groups of children are most susceptible to chronic PTSS trajectories in order to effectively treat children most vulnerable to PTSS. This project synthesized data across four studies to determine trajectories associated with mental health outcomes and risk factors of PTSS, with the long term goal of developing risk models to more efficiently allocate limited postdisaster resources to combat children’s PTSS.

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